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by Robotbeat 1428 days ago
No. That study didn’t even measure EV tire dust, they extrapolated it from weight.

Ignores that the rest of the car tends to be light weighted, etc

Also ignores that EVs universally use low rolling resistance tires, which dissipate less energy in rolling friction and thus less energy to produce tire particulates. (Rubber is also not nearly as bad as these PAHs.)

2 comments

True, tire dust may not be hugely different with EVs, but tire dust is definitely a problem. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/25/tyre-dus...
Can they not use other kinds of tires, and/or are those a cheap kind of tire? Because otherwise I expect that most that are on the road longer than a tire change, won't be using that kind, and that'll get more true the more accessible they get—there are a not small number of people who buy used tires because they can't afford new ones, not even shitty new ones, and worn tread is better than the totally-bald tires they're replacing.
Because the car’s usefulness is much less if they get conventional car tires. Lower range is super annoying, so people just pay for the slightly more expensive low rolling resistance tires. They’re also the standard replacement tires.
It really isn't that big of a deal to use more traditional tires either. The reduction in range only matters for edge case folks that really need the last 10%. It has also been harder during the supply chain crunch to get specific tires. We went to a more traditional winter tire on my wife's Tesla and it lost like 0.1 mi/kWh (it was averaging like 2.9-3.3 mi/kWh).
Low-rolling resistance tires suck in the wintery drizzle of the PNW, so our Nissan Leaf sports rubber that is a bit more sticky. If there's a difference in range, it's small enough that our measurements don't see it.
Can't speak for evs but I did the math on low rolling resistance tyres for our diesel last time I changed them, and over the lifetime of the tyre it was dubious whether it would pay for itself in fuel savings.